Walter Goehr music catalogue

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**Walter Goehr** (°Berlin 28 May 1903 - †Sheffield 4 December 1960) was a German-English conductor and composer. More

Walter Goehr (°Berlin 28 May 1903 - †Sheffield 4 December 1960) was a German-English conductor and composer.

Walter Goehr studied music at the Preussische Kunstakademie in Berlin. Arnold Schönberg was one of his teachers. After his studies, Goehr became a radio conductor in Berlin (1925-1931). He also made a name for himself as a composer. His most famous work from this period is the (radio) opera "Malpopita". Even before the National Socialists came to power, Goehr was fired in 1932 because of his Jewish descent. In 1933 he left for England, where he worked under the name George Walter until 1948. Initially he was a director of the Columbia Gramophone Company (1933-1939). In 1943 he became conductor of chorus and orchestra at London's Morley College. From 1945 to 1948 he was conductor of the BBC Theater Orchestra.

Walter Goehr composed music for theatre, film and radio and also wrote chamber and orchestral music. He also edited Monteverdi's "Vespers" (York 1954) and his opera "L'incoronazione di Poppea". He made a new instrumentation for piano and orchestra from the Paintings of an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. As a conductor he led numerous first performances of important new British music, including: Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (Benjamin Britten, 1943), A Child of our Time (Michael Tippett, 1944), Ulysses (Matthyas Seiber, 1949) and in 1959 the premiere of his son Alexander Goehr's opera "The Deluge". Goehr introduced Gustav Mahler's sixth symphony to England in 1950.

From 1950 he made a name for himself as the conductor of numerous recordings for the American budget label Musical Masterpiece Society (MMS).
Goehr died after a performance of Handel's "The Messiah" in Sheffield.

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